By Mr. Phillips

The Patterson boys lacrosse team finished the season with 2 wins and 8 losses. In spite of this disappointing record, the team did show a lot of strengths, especially conditioning at the midfield and attack positions and strength in the defensive positions. Opposing coaches noted that Patterson played hard the entire game, played physical, and have underclassmen who should improve next year.

The team’s biggest weaknesses were passing accuracy, lack of experience and eligibility. We only had 1 player with a significant amount of previous high school lacrosse experience. Lack of experience shows up in game situations when players chase the ball rather than defend their assigned player or zone. This led to a lot of open shots on the “weak side” when defenders left their zones. Good lacrosse requires a high amount of trust and teamwork, which is not built in a 2 month period, but requires a few years.

Eligibility was a big problem this season. We started with nearly 30 students attending conditioning and ended up starting our final game with just ten players healthy and eligible.

Patterson can only get better. We have not had an active lacrosse program for several seasons. We will be getting underclassmen involved in summer club lacrosse and younger players will get better at playing together.
Our MVP was Brandon Chambers (2019), team captain, who played long-stick defense and also filled in as goalie on several occasions. Brandon is an extremely hard worker and well-respected voice of reason in a huddle. His willingness to help teach freshman was outstanding.

An unsung hero for the team was Desmond Wilds, who played goalie after our starting goalie became ineligible. Desmond started in the goal against Poly, which was our strongest game in terms of hustle and effort. Playing goalie on an inexperienced team is a very difficult job because a person who doesn’t know much about lacrosse will assume that the goalie is a bigger factor than defensive lapses.